They probably even have comfy chairs and soft cushions
Over at the International Herald Tribune, one Anatol Lieven explains why things aren’t so bad in Pakistan and why Musharraf really isn’t so bad:
Most of those arrested have not been sent to prison but placed under house arrest; and since they are members of the Pakistani elite, we can be sure that their houses are comfortable ones.
And really, if you consider the fact that most of them likely have high-speed internet why, it’s like a vacation. Their houses are, after all, com-for-table!
The elites, including those in the military, are closely interrelated and share a common set of basic assumptions and interests – including not allowing their rivalry to reach the point where they would start killing each other.
Which is why they have been nice enough to limit themselves to “throwing rocks” or why the police only “tear-gassed and beat” protesters. Well, that and the possible suicide bombs:
The attack, possibly a suicide bomb, at the house of Amir Muqam, Minister for Political Affairs in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan killed four people Friday, police told CNN. The minister escaped unharmed.
There is no point in being too high-minded about these things
Well, if you happen to be a Bushie, that’s not a problem.
“The minister escaped unharmed.”
See? It’s like a holiday for them, no more dangerous than a fishing trip or base jumping excursion.
It’s just like Babs Bush told the displaced Katrina kids. They’re so much better off, it’s like a vacation!
Lucky duckies, every one.
The elites, including those in the military, are closely interrelated and share a common set of basic assumptions and interests – including not allowing their rivalry to reach the point where they would start killing each other.
Which nation was he talking about again?
As long as we have comfy cushions, I don’t know why we need democracy either. And if the media would just do its patriotic duty and report that we are winning the war, and everyone has a job, and there are no homeless people, and only terrorists are being wiretapped or detained illegally – why, we could even have freedom of the press!
II have been wondering where to take a vacation this year!! My house it is!!
Think of all the yard work then can get done!
I’m not seeing the problem here…
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!
Man, there’s a ton o’ patronizing neocolonialist claptrap in that there article. Sometimes I forget what effete classist shitheels the International Herald Trib is capable of inflicting on the reading populace.
Just another 2 bit Dictator who’s fallen madly in love with himself in uniform. Next we’ll see Musharrif arm in arm with Robert Mugabe and both will give statements about how the world doesn’t understand them and their countries “special problems”.
And remember, it could be worse! Those ‘elites’ could be no longer homeless and under house arrest in some refrigerator box out on a street or railroad siding in Islamabad somewhere.
Just think of it! No heat. No lights. No refrigeration for your booze. No place to throw your syringes full of alcohol dregs except where babies will step on them…
Those comfortable people are lucky-duckies indeed!
Well, you guys are just being snotty old poopy pantses.
I feel really good about this. I mean REALLY good.
‘Cause I KNOW I’m on the list, and when bush “declares a state of emergency” and they start rounding up the opposition, I was expecting to have to live in an unheated plywood barracks in a camp somwhere in minnesota.
But see? It’s not going to be that bad at all. I’ll just have to stay home, and when they aren’t “visiting” (read “waterboarding”) me, I’ll be able to watch the TV (only one state channel, but hey, could be worse) and even go out on the deck for an hour a day.
And here I was worried and stuff. Hell, this’ll be a walk in the park.
Who needs that old democracy anyway…
mikey
In all reality, does anyone expect a democracy (or for that matter, any sort of liberal government) to come of Musharref’s downfall?
“Which is why they have been nice enough to limit themselves to “throwing rocks” or why the police only “tear-gassed and beat” protesters. Well, that and the possible suicide bombs: ”
To be fair, none of what is described above is an example of the sort of conflict between the elites that the article’s author is describing (including, most likely, the suicide bombing).
I don’t know if the author is right or not, because I don’t know enough about Pakistan, but I do know that your examples don’t prove he’s wrong.
Pakistan is by far the sketchiest country in the world, bar none.
(Except our Imperial Sketch-Fest, that is.)
If Musharref goes, it will become a religious theocracy in a red hot minute.
I wonder what happened there in ages past that left such a bad karmic debt?
Strange. I enjoyed the guy’s book.
I’ll be able to watch the TV (only one state channel, but hey, could be worse)
There will be two actually. Fox News and the 24 station. Were they play 24, 24 hours a day.
I wonder what happened there in ages past that left such a bad karmic debt?
I’m more worried about when karma comes collectin’ on OUR bill.
hey Gavin, if you’re kicking around, I found a profile of the troll andrewgurn who has been posting slime over on the weblogs award forum. Like usa4me, he’s another love seeker with self-admitted anger issues. it’s pretty funny stuff.
http://www.okcupid.com/profile?u=andrewgurn
Were they play 24, 24 hours a day.
Say what? “24” Live AND in Real-Time? The ultimate merger of fiction, reality-TV and the news. Just don’t answer that casting-call for
torture-victimsextras.The sad thing is that Lieven inadvertently touches on a good point: the way the situation in Pakistan is depicted in our media, all the resistance to Musharraf comes from the elites. And I’ve to admit that Bhutto under house arrest doesn’t get me into the streets either.
Lieven fails to ask, however, if this Western media narrative is, in fact, correct. Or if there are, maybe, more people resisting Musharraf, people who don’t go to the whatever-school-of-management in Lahore, or are lawyers etc.; and what happens to those people, unmentioned in the Western press. I honestly don’t know myself (although I suspect there must be resistance beyond the tiny elite), but I wouldn’t base an opinion piece on the conflation of Western media reports with reality.
Actually, Pakistan appears to have developed the social institutions to support true representative liberal democracy. Remember, this crisis began when a true independent judiciary, the high court, challenged a dictator on the basis of the constitution and the rule of law. Sure, they still live under military dictatorship and there is a large religious fundamentalist community, but in general the Pakistani’s instincts are for liberal, somewhat secular democracy.
It’s entirely unclear how it will all play out in the near term, but I’d say it’s entirely unfair to brand the majority of Pakistanis with the “religious extremist” label. I think we may very well see a true democracy born there.
Unlike the idiot-child bush, you have to remember that liberal democracy means more than having elections. If you do not have the institutions that support democracy and the rule of law firmly in place, you get nothing but the tyranny of the majority. Exactly what we are seeing in Iraq. And those institutions have taken root in Pakistan…
mikey
Did you say idiot-child bush, mikey?
If you get a chance, see this movie:
http://www.tiff07.ca/filmsandschedules/filmdetails.aspx?id=704201619471344
Pakistan is yet another place that is more complicated than most of us understand.
I’m more worried about when karma comes collectin’ on OUR bill.
Word and a half, GD.
LOLEoW (Enemies of Wingnuttia)
I can haz hawse arrest nai? kthbai!
It was there once, an all-out, parliamentary democracy. Pakistan was the first (only?) predominantly muslim country to have a female PM, too. For whatever reasons (and there’s a lot of them), it didn’t last for long.
Pakistan is hard, because on one hand we should all support the world’s largest nominally democratic country (India), but on the other hand, we do so at the risk of alienating developing or potential democracies (Pakistan, China).
Oh, and that little shit-fest in Afghanistan didn’t help matters. Instead of picking up the pieces of that country, we had something more important to do. I just can’t remember what it was…
Pakistan is yet another place that is more complicated than most of us understand.
Pakistan is simply the place between Afghanistan and India on my Risk board. What else is there to know?
Pakistan is a colonialist construct drawn on the map by British imperialists. It’s predominately Urdu but part of the Urdu nation is still part of India(ever heard of Kashmir?–they make nice sweaters) and the northern region of geographic Pakistan is Pashtun(AKA Afghans). Y’know, the bits where they’re harboring Obama(or something or somebody–and our bud Pervez is afraid[?] to capture him)
Self-determination for all people! Bitchez!
Or maybe self-determination for some and little American flags for others.
PS: All purveyors of realpolitik can suck my white hairy ass.
Pakistan is a colonialist construct drawn on the map by British imperialists
Really? I could have sworn it was a post-colonialist construct drawn on the map by Jinnah.
Conservatives always seem to have an apologetic about dictators of the non-Communist and non-Islamic variety.
“Good” dictators are hard to find.
Of course, that’s because they usually keep themselves hidden in palaces lest their downtrodden subjects commit an act of “terrorism” against them.
But that’s just a feature of the non-Democratic society. Along with unquestioning obedience of minions, the ability to ignore human rights, and the privilege of choosing one’s own successor. And that fantastic command economy.
Gosh, I’m naive. I thought that if the leader of an alleged democracy rigged an election, shut the high court and started detaining people who disagree with him under the guise of national security measures, that was pretty much the end of that democracy until that leader could be replaced.
But, silly me, apparently that’s no big deal. Plus, I’m relieved to hear that the government of Myanmar has been so kind as to allow Aung San Suu Kyi a 17 year vacation.
And he knows this because the Pakistani Government has been so open and above-board about the situation. WTF? Those multiple monkeys might not have cranked out a Shakespeare play yet, but they’ve put a few real reporters on the dole.
Mrs. Tilton, I thought so too.
I’ll say it once again: S,N! is teh genius at unearthing wingnut “thought.”
I can’t believe nor understand how you do it, but I sure do appreciate and love it.
Wallowing in that level of teh stupid would be a wrist-slasher for me, for sure.
Oh, come on peeps. More of you have to be Pythonheads. Only one Spanish Inquisition joke in the entire thread?
My sister’s freakin’ religion class at her tiny Catholic college had more Python Spanish Inquisition jokes in it than this thread, and I just know this crew appreciates Python humor a lot more than those guys did…
gaspode: most of Pakistanis are Punjabis, then there are Sidhis, and only the third largest group are Mojahirs, exiles from the Hindi-belt of India, then Pathans, Baluchis etc.
It is also rather mysterious and sinister who is it exactly that attacks Bhutto. “In mid-October, Ms. Bhutto’s homecoming procession in Karachi was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing more than a hundred people. Mr. Khan said she had not followed the government’s warnings then. “Last time she wouldn’t listen, and that resulted in 140 deaths,” Mr. Khan said. [Khan is a government spokesman].
So the bombings are used as justification to keep emergency rules, abolish court system etc., and to keep Bhutto under arrests and to arrrests thousands of members of her party. Damn convenient.
General Musharaf is a good man you dumb leftys, at least he’s helping us catch terrorists unlike your favorite dictator Hugo Chavez who supports Iran. You Leftwing wackos need to get your damn facts straight for crying out loud!
Walter, I don’t know if you’re new here, but you are going to have to try a lot harder than that to get the attention of the commentariat here. You’re not stupid, deranged, incoherent, or particularly entertaining…just kinda run-of-the-mill not-quite-even-wingnuttery.
*yawn*
Pakistan was the first (only?) predominantly muslim country to have a female PM, too. For whatever reasons (and there’s a lot of them), it didn’t last for long.
Well, the small matter that she was considered as crooked as a dog’s hind leg comes to mind. She was kicked out of office, then defeated in parliamentary elections by Nawaz Sharif, and it was Sharif who got chucked out by Musharraf in the coup.
One issue that hasn’t been resolved since partition, though, is the weighty role of the military in Pakistan (a kind of mirror-image of Turkey, really). There’s a sketch of the issues here.
Pakistan is a colonialist construct drawn on the map by British imperialists. It’s predominately Urdu but part of the Urdu nation is still part of India(ever heard of Kashmir?–they make nice sweaters) and the northern region of geographic Pakistan is Pashtun(AKA Afghans).
Even though Jinnah is considered the father of Pakistan, it was the British who created it. After the British decided they’d looted enough and began acceeding to demands for self-rule, and began “introducing” democracy, but they created a system of religious and other quotas in elected bodies, emphasizing religious identity and creating an anxiety among the muslim minority (about 30% then) that in a “true” democracy, they’d be disenfranchised. it was from this that the movement for pakistan sprung. to this day, the indian parliament has quotas for some lower castes and aboriginal tribes.
There is no “Urdu” nation. Urdu was the predominant language of northern Indian elites (but not Kashmiris, who ethnically and linguistically are distinct), many of whom were Muslims who supported the partition of India. Once Pakistan was created, many migrated there, taking over governance, but soon the “indigenous populations of the land Pakistan was created on, ie Sindhis, Baluchis, Punjabis and Pashtuns revolted.
A lot of the tension and violence now is a result of these ethnic and geographic groups jostling for a share of the national pie.
Pakistan is a colonialist construct drawn on the map by British imperialists
Really? I could have sworn it was a post-colonialist construct drawn on the map by Jinnah.
it wasn’t “post-colonialist” — it was a farewell present from the British, a last kick in the nuts to the subcontinent.
YOU LIBERALS LOVE TERRORISTS AND HATE AMERICA!
GO BACK TO SMOKING POT AND WATCHING OLD WOODSTOCK VIDEOS YOU DUMB HIPPIES!
Thankx Mrs. Tilton for confirming that it wasn’t foreign geopolitical influence that helped Mr. Jinnah to create a state leading to the death of thousands of innocent people in an area which consists of several different ethnic groups. I’m sure the Pashtun people who were incorporated into the borders which were drawn by the British government are not in opposition to Urdu rule.
How happy you must be about the fact that the British happily withdrew from the sub-continent when that jocular Gandhi fellow suggested the idea of independence.
And that wonderfully progressive gentleman Mr. Jinnah adopted the lines drawn on the map by his oh so benevolent British benefactors(except for Kashmir, of course).
It’s just like in Iraq today, the wogs won’t take responcibility for our imperialist actions…the bastards
This is an oversimplification. There was a real fear among the subcontinental Muslim elite of political and cultural erasure in Gandhi’s idea. That fear is reified in your previous comment.
Gandhi was a pacifist sissy! Right up your treasonous ally you dumb hippies!
six years of unmitigated U.S. support for Musharraf, not to mention $10 billion dollars, mostly in military aid, has done nothing to curb terrorism in Pakistan, in fact Busharraf was busy spending it on his pet projects … conventional weapons that would most likely be used against India.
This is not merely a pet project, but what Benazir Bhutto or indeed any other government of Pakistan would have done. “Against India” is a constant. India is no less imperial than anyone else in the area.
Geez, Walter gave up on the ALL CAPS quite quickly. Did you lose your erection, walter? Or just your confidence?
Yeah, I love terrorists. ‘Cause I’m really hoping they blow up MY shit.
I’m thinking maybe the word “terrorist” has lost a certain amount of it’s meaning for these asshats…
mikey
Walter’s writing has a…how shall I say it?…familiar ring.
On the upside, it’s fun to watch someone be insanely stupid.
mikey, right on. The whole world has united (Praise W!) around the word, “terrorist.”
As in, whoever doesn’t agree with me is a terrorist. LOL.
Someone, please kill me quickly and at least a little painlessly.
If you don’t, I promise to get progressively more radical as I age. You don’t want that, trust me! I even hate the Democratic Man!
guilty as charged. i was just making the point that without British aid and support, the partition plan would not have been implemented, and it was the British, and Gandhi’s, refusal to guarantee Jinnah the prime ministership, that guaranteed partition.
reified… it’s been so long, i don’t know that i even know what it means any more. but i can assure that i understand that muslim anxieties were genuine, in fact, for the 150 million muslims remaining in india, the fear still exists.
but surely as a career military man, and chief of army staff, musharraf has an altogether keener interest in beefing up the army rather than a ragtag “Frontier Corps”
Y’all are ignoring the forest for the trees.
Didn’t Bush promise to plant the seed, or shove said seed up some poor country’s reproductive organs, in the name of “freedom and democracy?”
I didn’t think it was possible to make him look more stupid. But sure enough, he managed.
I need to get over that notion, in general. The man positively exceeds my expectations every time.
But John O,
GWB looked into his eyes and saw the abyss looking back. And he got all hot about it.
Similarly with the term “destabilization”. It was used so often, in the cold war and beyond, as a CIA or KGB tactic, an unfortunate by-product of super-power meddling or the threat of what might happen if somebody did something that the writer was opposed to.
I had come to believe that that “destabilization” was an artificial construct, something that was useful in messaging, but ultimately meaningless in the real world.
Now, I look at Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Georgia, not to mention, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan, and I realize that, as overused and overhyped as the concept might have been throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties, America has found that if you insert enough troops and meddle in the affairs of enough countries and your goals and aspirations are fuzzy at best, and summed up in silly junior high school level rhetoric, you truly can destabilize an entire region.
And, fittingly, it seems to me, with the dollar in free fall and the world genuinely angry and unwilling to believe or trust the thugs in charge of america, they have not only destroyed everything that America ever stood for and believed in, they have destroyed america in the process.
It’s funny. It’s likely to impact my life. And yet, I don’t honestly feel bad about it. If you act badly, and your actions have consequences that ultimately lead to your own destruction, there is, at some level, a certain justice in that.
But then, remember, they’re gonna put me in the camps….
mikey
gaspode, GWB is a closet End-Timer.
Also a drunk, “born on third base thinking he hit a triple,” moron loser ignoramous authoritarian welfare case of the first degree.
At this point, my guess is that Laura won’t fuck him, which is also to say she NEVER blew him, at least in a way that implies completion.
I want me my POTUS to be gettin’ some. Calms them down. Gotta avoid POTUS’ with an itchy cock-finger.
in fact in declaring emergency, musharraf was only following in bush’s footsteps — it was the only way to stack the supreme court with his loyalists. if only he could have done it through the system, it would saved him so much angst about his rubber stamp reelection
So I’m drinkin scotch and making a duck breast and garlic-herb pasta and listening to Danzig.
FTW….
mikey
Ugh, garlic. I remember a few years ago my family ate out at an Italian restaraunt and my father went crazy on the garlic bread. My mother was making these half-jokes about how she wasn’t going to sleep in their bed for the next week.
I didn’t know how serious she was until my boyfriend had some shrimp scampi (I think it was…?) and I smelled that stuff all night and well into the next day when he wasn’t even freakin’ around.
And I tend to have a more intense reaction than most to strong smells.
Mm. I loves me some garlic.
Although tonight we’re going with the bland. Got some wild-caught cod fillets at the market; got some fresh farmer’s market broccoli, and we’ll eat some leftover mashed potatoes.
What’s a good way to cook the cod? I gotta check my cookbooks. Maybe just baked with a little white wine and breadcrumbs and butter?
God bless you, mikey. Precisely right, and often summed up as, “you get what you deserve.”
I’ll be there with you in the camps, so there is potential for laughs, in a “Life Is Beautiful” kind of way.
Garlic rules.
And I say that definitively as a single man.
Also, onion.
Hit the cod with a 2:1 flour and corn meal. With a healthy sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Put it in a pan over pretty goddam high heat. One minute per side. If it needs it, finish it in a 300 oven for a few.
Crispy and delish outside, soft and moist inside. And WAY healthier than a batter, which, dammit, is pretty good by itself, made with a guinness type beer. But whatever…
mikey
mikey, I gotta say you sound like one fine chef.
You must be a fag or homo or gaywad or something.
Why do I always drool though?
Well, the reason why my hackles were prematurely raised is that I have seen this argument used as the opening gambit by sundry Sanghbots, but I appreciate that you are not a Sanghbot. Really, there is almost nothing about the current political arrangements on the subcontinent that has any a priori “moral necessity” or legitimacy beyond that conferred by colonialism. India isn’t any more legit.
Hit the cod with a 2:1 flour and corn meal. With a healthy sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Put it in a pan over pretty goddam high heat.
Dip it in milk or egg or something before the flour/corn meal?
This sounds pretty good – I got a new stainless pan at Surfa’s, too, which I’ll try out.
I spent half the night making this steak & onion & tomato dish that I stole from my Colombian boyfriend’s mother.
Then his car got towed so I’m stuck here watching it simmer with nothing but a big glass of chianti to comfort me while I wait.
[sigh]
Well at least it will be really tender… and I don’t live in Pakistan… yet.
“…and when bush “declares a state of emergency” and they start rounding up the opposition, I was expecting to have to live in an unheated plywood barracks in a camp somwhere in minnesota.”
Mikey, when did you see my house?
James Wolcott links to Ramesh Ponnuru quoting Deroy Murdock gettin’ all manly on waterboardin’:
“Party of Death” Ponnuru is actually mildly disappointed by this perspective on the part of his mightily esteemed colleagues. So civil, these NRO types, given the polite way in which one condemns the passionate embrace of medieval water torture by one’s fellow conservatives.
And Murdock very clearly said “waterboarding”, and nothing about comfy chairs.
Dip it in milk or egg or something before the flour/corn meal?
Fish, rabbit and venison, always with the milk. Evaporated with diced garlic if you have it. But you wanna use the dairy to pull out teh nasty.
Gbear. It’s still home. I’ve decorated a hole in the ground and called it home. Stand hard, hold the fucking line. That unheated plywood barracks is YOURS, and when they come to take it I’ll stands watch with you.
Fuck ’em, y’know?
mikey
If I say that unless we rape more babies the terrorists win, will that get me linked to and quoted? Or do I have to pretend to be gay and write sex columns?
Oh, maybe if I wear my underwear on the outside…
Ol’ Ramesh sounds like another waterboarding candidate.
He has sort of a terrorist name. Wonder if he’s on the watch list?
Psycho killer, c’est que se.
He and Ann Coulter ought to get together and make some Nazi babies, just to advance the nature/nurture science.
Wow. That is the most inhumane and unproductive and psychopathic thing I’ve seen quoted since everything the Bush Administration says.
You must be a fag or homo or gaywad or something.
I found something, one goddam shining thing that I could do that did NOT result in death and destruction.
The very moment I had reached the conclusion I had been brought forth into this woeful world to be nothing but the bearer of death, destruction and the most visceral expression of hate and inhumanity, almost the very moment I had decided that the only thing I hated more than this world and the creatures that populated it was me and my “gifts”, I was diagnosed with very serious high blood pressure, and I was told I had to change, well, everything or I would die, soon, and kind of hard.
The 12 steps couldn’t reach me. Jail couldn’t reach me. But I though, hmm, dammit, I don’t need to fold my tent today. At that point I couldn’t boil water. I started thinking about food, about how we eat, what we eat, what is “good” and what is toxic. And I very quickly realized that you can’t buy complex or what I like to call “completed” foods. No frozen banqet meals. No canned soup. No things that you can microwave. It’s full of sodium, and chemical toxins.
So I started in the kitchen. Scared, at first, boiling over the simplest thing, but understanding there was more than an answer to my BP here, there was something deeper. A sense of being connected to the earth. A sense of, well, not just control over what I ate, but a way to relate to everything else through the simple exercise of eating and shitting.
You know, people ten thousand years ago didn’t, for the most part, deal with scarcity. It was almost a perfect world then. They worked a few hours tending and harvesting just what they needed for today. Then they ground the flour, picked the ripe vegetables and the hunting party contributed a carcass. And there was protein, carbos and vitamins in the right measure. And life was, well, except for the sand in the bread from grinding the grain on stones, pretty fucking good.
And it’s that simplicity I’m reaching for, every day…
mikey
Just to emphasize, that was Ponnuru quoting Murdock, and it is Deroy Murdock who’s all cuckoo for cocoa-boarding.
Like “a walk in the park”.
Mikey, the shack is actually covered with 112-year-old lap siding, but I’m already wearing a heavy flannel shirt and a wool sweater indoors. Been thru a few battles in this neighborhood already (Norm Coleman was my mayor for too many years) but I’m surrounded by friends and neighbors who know how to hold on. I’m learning from them. Good luck yourself.
Your recipes sound wonderful and simple.
“Ol’ Ramesh sounds like another waterboarding candidate.”
YEAH!! Oh.. I thought you said Emanuel Rahm.
Damn good cod, may I say? The cayenne give it a nice hit. The broccoli was tender and sweet (steamed) and my potatoes, which were good the first time around, were just as good the second.
Bush should reinstate waterboarding publicly and proudly
Public waterboarding? With witch-ducking? I trust there will be tumbrils.
For some reason when I hear the phrase “public waterboarding” I can’t help but think of joggling boards.
Joggling boards
Damn it, all this food talk has made me hungry.
All I know is if they start sticking us in camps, I want to be in the same one as mikey. I’m sure his rodent ragout would be to die for.
You know, mikey, I think there’s a lot you get out of cooking other than something good to eat. I’m trying to learn how to nurture myself these days and making and eating something that tastes great and is good for me helps with that. And there’s something about the work that quiets the noise in my head.
LOL, mikey.
I keep my life very simple, too.
I’m a single guy, so I don’t care so much what I’m eating, but I keep things simple, period, end of story.
And I’m with Arky when we’re all in camps. I want mikey as my cook.
We’ll all try to be Hogan’s Heroes, and get some laughs in while we can.
Christ, my own FAMILY teases me about my Ted K. tendencies. They know I’m toast, while simultaneously know I shouldn’t be, since I’ve never been violent in my life.
It’s all very weird.
I fit in well, but always feel like a stranger.
Oh, just for the record, mikey, don’t kid yourself about winning the race.
Good diet and good exercise are both terrific things. Then you get hit by a bus, or contract some rare malignancy, or rare neuro-disease that has jack shit to do with what you’re eating. Or George Bush starts WWIII, which he seems to be a big fan of. Sorry, “of which he seems to be a big fan.”
My boss is a great eater, and great exerciser. His cholesterol just came in at 318.
I told him he doesn’t smoke and drink enough.
Personally, I’ve become much more fatalistic as I age.
[Pakistan] was a farewell present from the British, a last kick in the nuts to the subcontinent.
Ah. Much like the nation currently known as “Iraq”, in fact. Only, y’know, with actual weapons of mass destruction.
And, Simba, established couples know that when one partner orders garlic, the other partner always takes a bite or two as well. Even a couple croutons off his salad will do. As long as you’ve got the allicin compounds circulating in your own bloodstream, his stanky breath and/or bodily fluids will have no power against you. My partner of almost-30-years is a supertaster, and from the Midwest; it took him a while to stop gagging on those croutons but now he’s a serious fan of the Big G. Which is fortunate, because it’s a lot easier to train your palette than to break a garlic fiend’s addiction.
Hey, y’all.
I got a little bent out of shape over a troll at the Gannon thread dumping on Dan Savage, but now I think I’ll turn in. Dinner was good – thanks, mikey, for a great recommendation!
Hope the geriatric Rottweiler’s digestion is a little more stable tonight!
I’m beginning to see the vision these idiots have for America. Liberals under house arrest…would suit them just fine.
Didn’t you know that Saddam smuggled them all over the border to Iran… helped them kickstart their program.
Seriously, I’m surprised some Bush toadie hasn’t said that yet.
One’s thing’s certain, you never see a gourmet chef or a gourmand on a right wing blog.
Ace of Spades: Would you like your playdoh sunny side up or scrambled? Fries with that?
I read this and thought of a young Mikey in Vietnam. The beat goes on.
sorry to be late to the party, boys, but congrats on being the funniest blog in blogtopia, and yes i coined that phrase!
I wonder how much of the Ace vote can be attributed to Anyone But Malkin.
Anyone know how to make a decent beef bone stock? Every time I try, it’s a fucking disaster. I’m addicted to Vietnamese pho bo tai (noodle soup with raw beef), but I have to make it using ham stock, which even a right-wing troll couldn’t fuck up.
kiki,
try smashing the bones a bit with a hammer and then brown them up in olive oil for a few minutes. make sure nothing burns. then add a few bits of actual beef,any seasonings you like and some water. Let it cook on a low heat for awhile. Once you get a good broth,strain the whole lot.
in fact in declaring emergency, musharraf was only following in bush’s footsteps — it was the only way to stack the supreme court with his loyalists. if only he could have done it through the system, it would saved him so much angst about his rubber stamp reelection
I loved the fact Musharraf blamed the problems on ‘judicial activism’, wonder where he got that idea?
kiki, for the pho bo, follow angryoldbroad’s suggestions, but try frying in half decent vegetable oil, rather than olive oil if its not working out. Also, depending on where you are, if you can hold of the Vietnamese version of ‘Maggi’, add a few drops after you have drained it, it should help it along. But don’t stress it, remeber, every pho bo is different….
kiki,
Roast them bones first, preferably with some fat and meat still on them.
I use a half size hotel pan I horked from a restaurant I worked at years ago, but a 9×12 cake pan is OK.
Toss some barely chopped carrots and celery, and you’ve gotta have onion in there. Whole garlic cloves can be a nice addition, but they’re not essential.
Roast on low, say 250-300 for a couple hours.
Then pull out the pan and pour 2-3 cups of hot water on it to de-glaze it.
Scrape any burnt/caramelized stuff off the pan bottom, most will dissolve into the H2O.
Dump it all into a good size saucepan or pasta pot – if you’ve got an actual stock pot all the better. Add another 3-4 cups of water to cover all the bones and cooked veggies.
Toss in a bay leaf or two, a sprig or two of rosemary, and some thyme.
Some salt – go light, it’s easier to add more later than to thin it out.
Add 8-10 peppercorns whole. If you have juniper berries(“they’re all I’ve bloody well got to eat!”) toss in 3-4 whole.
You should have about 3 quarts in the pot.
Simmer for 4-6 hours, add H20 to keep the bones covered.
I confess that I myself voted for Ace to deny Malkin any joy. I’m not proud of it, but I’ll own it.
I should have mentioned that cracking the bones after they come out of the oven will help get you more flavor – mmmmmm …. marrow!
It’s a French style stock – skip the rosemary, thyme and juniper if you’re doing Thai.
Oh – I recommend straining it into another pot after simmering.
It’s hard to enjoy soup if you keep poking your nose with beef ribs.
John O.
I am with you. losing 3,000+ American lives, making invalids of another 10K, wasting close to $1T, all on the idea of bringing democracy to the Middle East, and then to say, “well, what’s so great about democracy? quality time at home (arrest) is what’s important”…
But what’s the news here? Remember, this whole “democracy in the middle east” only became the meme after the WMD and the AQ links got debunked. Why would anyone think that it would last?
Putting up a front that is blatantly inconsistent with reality and with their own previous statements and rationales has been the hallmark of this Administration. And that’s not just about the war; remember, after Katrina, N.O. had the look of a cheap “Earth-being-destryed-by-Martians-and-all-hell-breaks-lose” movie he came up with “heckuva job Brownie”… How is that different from “Pervez is not so bad, yo”?
it’s in human nature, though, that such behaviour elicits very strong reaction. See, after a few thousand years of civilization, humans have generally adopted the notion that adherence to neutral reality and to someone’s own proclamations is kind of needed for normal social functioning. If you fail on that, that’s OK, but you need to make some acknowledgement of being wrong.
That’s the whole genesis of the Bush Derangement Syndrom. It’s really simple, you can experiment it at home, for example: borrow you S.O.s I-pod and delete all their songs. Then look at them in the eyes and say, “no I didn’t”, and then say “besides these songs were not good for you, anyway”, and then top it off with “you still have an I-pod, what are you complaining about?” Then watch what kind of reaction you will get.
That’s what it is, really. There is some buzz going around about a liberal radio-host (forgot the name) that said he had violent thoughts when watching ScotMcclelan/Snow/DanaPerrino. The right is trying to milk it again (O’Reilly had a piece), to show how deranged these people are. It has worked in the past, however, things maybe changing. Watch Bush approval ratings: the 30% is not going to go lower, that’s the hard core; however, The other 70% are shifting noticeably from “somewhat disaprove” to “strongly disaprove” with “strongly disap” now over 50%. The country is getting angrier…